The reviewers made many suggestions for the improvement of this paper, and I agree that these improvements are needed.
The value of this manuscript lies primarily in the analytical techniques presented. The result is simple but of interest. As both reviewers noted, the discussion consists mostly of rambling speculation. I found it hard to follow (particularly the part about balancing selection) and neither convincing nor very interesting. There is nothing wrong with just admitting that you don't understand the process behind this pattern and suggesting some experiments.
The writing needs to be improved throughout. The word fixation is often used in a confusing manner. For example, see line 28 page 5: "We focus only on PB1, PB2 and HA lineage labels, since all other segments have fixed either the Vic or the Yam lineage." See also the sentence on lines 48-49 of that page.
The first line of the abstract and the first paragraph of the introduction make it sound like influenza B is an increasingly worrisome public health problem. Influenza B does not need to be hyped to be interesting, and this type of "journalism" can makes the reader wonder about the validity of everything that follows.
The reviewers made many suggestions for the improvement of this paper, and I agree that these improvements are needed.
The value of this manuscript lies primarily in the analytical techniques presented. The result is simple but of interest. As both reviewers noted, the discussion consists mostly of rambling speculation. I found it hard to follow (particularly the part about balancing selection) and neither convincing nor very interesting. There is nothing wrong with just admitting that you don't understand the process behind this pattern and suggesting some experiments.
The writing needs to be improved throughout. The word fixation is often used in a confusing manner. For example, see line 28 page 5: "We focus only on PB1, PB2 and HA lineage labels, since all other segments have fixed either the Vic or the Yam lineage." See also the sentence on lines 48-49 of that page.
The first line of the abstract and the first paragraph of the introduction make it sound like influenza B is an increasingly worrisome public health problem. Influenza B does not need to be hyped to be interesting, and this type of "journalism" can makes the reader wonder about the validity of everything that follows.